Bed shear stress evaluation in combined sewers

Abstract

Experiments have been undertaken on two sewer trunk lines in order to identify an accurate and practical technique for estimating bed shear stresses in combined sewers. Various methods were tested to determine both local bed shear stress values (one based on the logarithmic velocity profile and the other on the Reynolds shear stress distribution) and mean bed shear stress values (using a method based on the energy slope). Velocity measurements were performed using a micropropeller and an Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter (ADV) under dry weather flow conditions. In sewers without sediments, both the wall law and Reynolds shear stress distribution methods lead to the same bed shear stress estimation. A method based on the logarithmic velocity profile obtained by micropropeller is proposed herein to evaluate local shear stress in combined sewers. Calculations based on channel slope lead to an over-estimation of bed shear stress due to the inaccuracy of bed slope data. If the energy slope S c , as calculated from the Darcy-Weisbach or Manning formula, is used to calculate the mean shear stress in sewer sections without sediments, results are consistent with the local shear stress measurements.